Rainer Lohmann: Don’t overlook danger of silent spills

Americans watched in horror as West Virginia residents were robbed of their safe drinking water because of the release of the coal-cleaning chemical referred to as MCHM. Many have wondered how this could...

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By
Rainer Lohmann
Posted Feb. 14, 2014 @ 12:01 am

Americans watched in horror as West Virginia residents were robbed of their safe drinking water because of the release of the coal-cleaning chemical referred to as MCHM. Many have wondered how this could have happened, and worse — how is it possible that there is no information on the safety of this chemical?

The bitter truth is that we are exposed to countless industrial chemicals on a daily basis, many of which have been detected only fortuitously by scientists. Pollutants such as DDT and PCBs were first observed as unidentified compounds in seals and eagles; a similar story can be told about the discovery of flame retardants in breast milk.

These silent spills are insidious, resulting in a slow but steady contamination of the environment and our public health. Research has shown that 96 percent of American adults contain traces of the chemicals used in Teflon and waterproof outdoor clothing in their bloodstream.

Regardless of the care a person might take in attempting to avoid chemical exposures by eating organic foods, using low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, etc., we simply cannot escape the presence of hundreds of chemicals in our bodies. Every day, the average American is exposed to flame retardants leaching out of his couch and electronics, chlorinated products used to seal her windows, and antimicrobial agents in cleansers and hand soaps. Animal studies have repeatedly shown that low-dose exposures to flame retardants, waterproofing agents, and chlorinated products can lead to insulin resistance, obesity and early puberty.

The MCHM spill in West Virginia, while horrible and inexcusable from a regulatory perspective, will be washed out of the water supply within days to weeks — a relatively short time. These other chemicals to which we are all regularly exposed, however, will continue to affect a huge proportion of the U.S. population unless and until the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is reformed to provide a transparent and pro-active approach toward the regulation of industrial chemicals.

Currently, consumers are not even allowed to know the names of chemicals produced by industry, since they are classified as “confidential business information.” Likewise, we are not privy to the quantities in which these compounds are produced, the effects they might have, or even how they are used.

We need to turn this process around so that industry must prove the safety of their chemicals, rather than waiting for a terrible accident like the MCHM spill to determine the potential public health effects in a real-time medical experiment on the American public. TSCA should be amended to require that industrial producers test the safety of these chemicals before they are mass-produced.

Congress must act to prevent industry from hiding behind the shield of confidential business information. The public has a right to make informed decisions about the exposures we face in the course of our daily activities.

Chemicals play a critical role in our lives, and they will continue to be developed and incorporated into a wide variety of useful products and applications. This value, however, does not warrant automatic legal protections that favor corporate profits over public health. Consumers need to be able to make informed choices about their purchases to stop the occurrence of these potentially harmful silent spills every day.

Rainer Lohmann is a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.